We enter the last week of Advent. While I know that the secular promptings for beginning the celebration of Christ- mas surround us, it is important that we keep the sense that Advent is a time that recapitulates the Jewish yearning and ex- pectation for their promised Messiah. We saw this emptiness, this yearning, this desire for the completion of God‟s promise to „make things right‟ to Adam and Eve. We Catholics look back on this Jewish expectation with a unique perspective be- cause we believe that the promise was fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Our celebration of the arrival of Jesus in human flesh and form is a celebration of gratitude to the Father, who sends His Son, born alone and away from human tenderness. Of course, He and His family were not alone: the angels shouted the news, the shepherds came to see this event and even As- trologers found Him. We attempt to integrate this experience (though from some 2000 years ago!)into our personal and daily lives. In our days of secular activity and the reduction of the sacred to the trite, it is a strenuous feat to keep the spiritual alive in our daily lives. In order to help us, I would like to refresh our attention to the difference between our secular lives and our religious lives. This distinction, though no separation, allows us to pay attention to the different awareness we can implement. Our public, practical and active lives deal with achieving goals, keeping things in order, making sure all is taken care of, driving the kids around, working and putting up with stresses at home and in the workplace. All of this takes a great deal of time and energy and most are pretty tired from all this activity. It is difficult to shift from the practical and active life to be aware of or sensitive to the religious or spiritual dimension of our lives. It is especially difficult because the spiritual dimension is the exact opposite of the practical. The active part of our life is filled with my goals, intentions and actions. The religious is the opposite: it is not of my doing, but of my receiving. To receive a gift, one needs to stop running around and one needs to stand there (perhaps even embarrassed) in order to receive (take) the gift. God reveals Himself to us not because of how much we are doing or have done. He reveals Himself because he created and loves us. (This reminds me of a family who gave birth to twins. They soon discovered that both boys had a rare disease called Hurler Syndrome. The result of this ill- ness - death by the time they would be two – caused the parents to seek every possible way of delaying the inevitable. They closed their home and moved closer to an important hospital. They attempted every possible way of delaying the tragic end- ing. They did this because these boys were their children and they loved them. They would do anything for them. The boys were the recipients of their parent‟s love and efforts.) Like the children in our story, we could do nothing to break down the door separating us from God. God comes to us. We are gifted with a special possible healing. We need to realize that in the case of our spiritual reality, it is God who comes to us. We can even in the midst of being very busy keep the realization that it is The Father who comes to us. In fact, we layer our busyness with a sense of yearning, waiting, expecting. It is as it were a double consciousness: the awareness of acting and doing as well as waiting at the same time. This is where peace comes from: from the sense that even in the activity of daily life we might be able to find God. As our Advent season comes to an end with the full realization that the One Awaited has arrived, we too can hope that we will find Him, our Peace and Redemption, as we go about our daily activity.

Thank you for your generosity to the Circle of Hands. All giving tree gifts MUST be returned no later than 10:30 Mass next weekend. We are making up food baskets. If you wish to provide a special treat, you may want to bring in olives or pickles. We also need to store up on basics includ-ing mayonnaise, brown rice, pancake mix, and syrup. Your kindness shows what a special parish we have here at SMG.